Most of All, Angels Need a New Management Style

In case you’re wondering why they call it the winter meetings, just ask the Angels, who returned home from chilly Atlanta with a bad case of freezer burn and the cold shoulder.

I don’t want to say it was a wasted trip, but it’s never a good sign when the best thing you have to show for this annual baseball swap shop is triple Advantage miles, Marriott points and catcher Bill Schroeder.

The poor Angels. They leave here on a mission: Sign pitchers Nolan Ryan and Bruce Hurst. They return virtually empty-handed, with more lonely dotted lines than you can shake a pen at.

By the end, the Angel effort is sadly comical, a management remake of Elmer Fudd hopelessly chasing Bugs Bunny. Owner Gene Autry, bless his heart, is reduced to making personal appeals to Ryan. General Manager Mike Port, who usually has the Angel purse strings tied tightly in square knots, offers millions for the taking.

“Sign here, you cwazy fwee agents,” the Angels plead.

Instead, Ryan, once a Houston Astro, stays in Texas, this time with the Rangers--for less money. Hurst, formerly of the Boston Red Sox, accepts the San Diego Padres’ proposal--for less money.

Something is strangely amiss when the Angels arrive in Atlanta, practically set up a booth in the hotel lobby to advertise their roster needs, announce that they will not be outbid for Ryan and Hurst and still walk away with nothing more than a second-string catcher. It was embarrassing, to say the least; a reflection of the team’s sad state, to say the obvious.

The Angels discovered the hard way that their reputation precedes them. After several seasons of penny pinching, distant views of first place and questionable front-office tactics, word has spread: It’s not worth it.

It’s not worth enduring the Port regime and all that goes with it: The make-believe negotiating deadlines. The lack of communication. The inconsistencies.

What sort of franchise is this that penalizes youth (Wally Joyner) and disregards experience (Bob Boone)? How can you empty your pockets for Ryan and Hurst, but nickel-and-dime Joyner or Devon White or even Kirk McCaskill to death?

Players, especially veterans such as Ryan and Hurst, notice these sort of things. They see an organization allow a future Hall of Fame catcher, fresh from the best offensive season of his career, to leave, and they wonder why. They see a once-personable, baby-faced rookie first baseman, who averaged 100 runs batted in his first 3 seasons, become another in a long list of unhappy employees. They see a rookie manager, Cookie Rojas, get fired with only a handful of games remaining in the season.

Ryan, in explaining his decision to sign with the Rangers rather than the Angels, said he wanted to remain close to his family and their ranch in Alvin, Tex. He also could have added that he wanted to remain as far away as possible from a team that should finish well behind the rejuvenated Rangers this season.

Meanwhile, Hurst told reporters that he chose San Diego because of its greater proximity to family in Utah. He also admitted that he liked what the Padres had done with themselves, which is become a contender for a National League pennant.

Uh, Bruce, the last time I looked at a map, Anaheim was farther north and thus, closer to Utah than San Diego. So does that mean--gasp!--that you’re not impressed with what the Angels have done with themselves, which is to become close, personal friends with the bottom of the AL West standings?

No need to answer that.

The Angels are in trouble, no matter what Port says about this team regaining its lost stature. You can’t offer $9 million worth of contracts, get turned down cold, and then say everything will be just fine. Well, you can, but you better get used to the sound of laughter.

It seems that Angel management (meaning Port) better change its ways and attitude. Either that, or quit trying to sign players with families.

Consider the outlook:

Almost every team in the division helped itself in the last month or so--except maybe the Angels.

The Oakland Athletics, World Series runner-ups, added starter Mike Moore to their rotation. The Minnesota Twins, World Series champions a season ago, solidified their infield with Wally Backman. The Rangers added Ryan, All-Star second baseman Julio Franco and Rafael Palmeiro, the National League’s second-leading hitter last year, to their roster. The Seattle Mariners hired the impressive Jim Lefebvre as their manager and signed outfielder Jeffrey Leonard and reliever Tom Niedenfuer. Chuckle all you want, but Niedenfuer earned 18 saves for a hapless Baltimore team in 1988. The White Sox hired Jeff Torborg as their manager, which must count for something.

As for the Angels, they signed Lance Parrish, but lost Boone by doing so. A push, until Parrish proves otherwise.

They signed pitcher Bert Blyleven, figuring a change of scenery will do him good. Wait a second. Same league. Same hitters. Same ballparks. Same ball. Same mounds. Same travel. Who cares if he dresses at the Metrodome or Anaheim Stadium? Either you can pitch or you can’t--and during the second half of 1988, Blyleven couldn’t pitch worth a lick.

And they hired Doug Rader as their manager, which friends close to Hurst said was another reason he spurned the Angels.

Dark times indeed for a franchise down to its last candle.